


how i know (you're mine)

by binchmarner



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, Texting, Valentine's Day, long distance, mitch sends a lot of gifts and dylan is charmed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:01:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22964218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/binchmarner/pseuds/binchmarner
Summary: Dylan gets a bunch of Valentine's day gifts, and one really surprising one.
Relationships: Mitch Marner/Dylan Strome
Comments: 7
Kudos: 46
Collections: The Dylan Strome Celebration 2020





	how i know (you're mine)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reserve](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reserve/gifts).

> i really hope you like this, my dear reserve!!
> 
> thank you to j for betaing this for me!
> 
> title of story comes from dodie's cover of [ how i know.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSJxo1XPD0A&t=13s)

Dylan’s woken up at the unfortunate time of the ass crack of dawn by a knock at the door. He’s really not expecting anything, though Mitch does have a tendency to order things off of Dylan’s Prime at stupid early hours of the morning. His jaw cracks as he yawns, and he stretches as he sits up. 

He doesn’t really want to get out of bed; his bed is nice and warm, and outside is, well. Fucking freezing to put it lightly. 

Though it’s not more than three hundred feet to get out his room and to the door in the little hallway, so he decides to cut his losses and just go.

The floor is cold under his feet, and he thinks for a moment that he should go turn on the heat when there’s another knock at the door, reminding him what he got up to do.

“Delivery for... Mr. Strome?” A woman says when he opens the door. She’s carrying a bouquet of red roses in a vase–– the entire thing is probably half her size, but her bright smile shines over it.

“I–– that’s me,” he says, taking the vase of flowers from her. He cradles it against his hip and flushes dark. “Is there a note?”

She smiles, holding out a little card for him.

_ To Stromer. _

_ Violets are blue, _

_ your cheeks are dumb. _

_ I can’t wait ‘til i see you again, _

_ so we can have fun. _

_ -MM _

Dylan rolls his eyes and sticks the card between a couple flowers, thanks the woman and shuts the door. He turns up the heat before walking to go get his phone. He opens his message thread with Mitch, smiling in spite of himself. 

**Mitchy Mouse**

**[07:15 am]**

_ You absolute idiot. _

_ I love you. _

_ [insert img] _

**[07:20 am]**

I have no idea who gave you those

:)

**[07:21 am]**

_ Fun and dumb don’t even rhyme _

_ “lawyer classes” _

**[07:23 am]**

the nerve omg

i do one nice thing for this guy…

**[07:23 am]**

_ I love you. _

**[07:24 am]**

<3

Dylan finds himself smiling down at his phone for longer than he thinks is truly necessary at 7:30 am. He opens Snapchat and sends Mitch a photo of himself flipping the camera off, to which Mitch replies with a photo of himself sleep rumpled and shirtless, his hair sticking up in every which way. 

Dylan loves his boyfriend so much it hurts. 

\---

Dylan gets a knock at the door around noon. He groans, shoving his face into his pillow. He hopes he can ignore the knocks until whoever’s at the door goes away, but his phone buzzes with a message.

**Debrinkitten**

**[12:30 pm]**

If you don’t open your door i swear to god

Your boyfriend brought you a gift and i’m gonna eat it

Dylan’s eyebrows are furrowed as he looks at his phone.

**Mitchy Mouse**

**[12:31 pm]**

_ what’d you do _

**[12:31 pm]**

:D

Dylan walks to his door, opening it to an Alex DeBrincat holding a fairly huge heart-shaped box.

And a letter.

“Oh god,” Dylan says, his cheeks flushing at Alex’s wide grin. 

“ _ Dear Sugar Lips, _ ” Alex reads out, making his voice higher pitched and a little lovesick to match Mitch’s (it’s nothing like Mitch’s.) “ _ I hope these chocolate-covered strawberries are just as sweet as you are. It’s too bad I can’t be here to… _ oh ew, what the fuck?  _ I can’t be here to eat them off of you––  _ Dylan, you kinky fuck!”

“Just finish the damn letter,” Dylan says through his hands covering his face.

“You’re bright red! That’s amazing!” Alex laughs. Dylan shoots him a capital L-Look and Alex goes back to reading. “ _ If only we were together. One day my dear, one day–– _ he sounds like something out of fucking Shakespeare.”

“Alex!”   
  


“Okay! Okay!  _ At least you can enjoy a sweet thing on me. Love, Mouse. _ ” Alex looks like he’s found the chirping point of the century, and honestly, the little shit probably has.

“Look, you Danny DeVito wannabe––”

“Hey, hey, hey! You don’t have to chirp me just because your partner’s crazy about you.” Alex grins. 

“That’s not the, the only thing he’s gotten me.” Dylan steps back to let Alex through the door, where the first thing seen is the huge vase of roses. Alex stumbles a little bit.

  
“Wow…”

“Yeah.”

“That’s a––”

“Yeah.”

“He really loves you, doesn’t he?” Alex asks, his voice full of wonder. Dylan smiles a little bit. 

“Yeah, he really does.”

\---

Alex and Dylan have a late lunch at a hole in the wall diner, where they get burgers and fries and shakes because they can. It may be Valentine’s Day, but since Mitch isn’t here, it’s a  _ Palentine’s Day. _ He even takes a photo on Snap with the cute  _ Palentine’s Day  _ geotag and sends it to Mitch, but he doesn’t get a reply. 

Mitch doesn’t even read it.

“Sorry Mitch, you’ve been replaced,” Alex jokes when he takes the check, putting his card in the black folder.

Dylan laughs. “I do love you, but you’re not getting a bro job from this bud date.”

Alex levels him with a look. “Bro, you did  _ not _ just say  _ bro job. _ ”

“I think I did,” he smirks. Alex rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling, so it’s not  _ that  _ big of a deal. 

\---

Practice is tough in more ways than one. For one thing, the guys are all talking about what they’re doing for Valentine’s day. They all rib Kirby for being too young to date–– “what are you, still in middle school?” ––and chirp Alex for his new engagement, that this Valentine’s Day he’s _gotta_ _step up his game, you already got her a ring for her anniversary_.

He thinks about Mitch, who he’s not gotten a single text from since the strawberries. He wonders if his gift for Mitch has gotten there yet–– it’s a mix tape of songs they sent each other while flirting during juniors and a bracelet made from seaglass from Balmy Beach, a beach they always visit when he visits Mitch in Toronto during the summer.

God, Dylan misses him.

“I’m taking her on a trip,” Alex skates up to Dylan, snapping him out of his thoughts. 

“Hmm?”

“Theresa. ‘M taking her on a trip this summer. A cruise around Southern Caribbean. She’s gonna be so fucking excited.”

Dylan smiles. “That’s awesome, Alex.”

Alex smiles like he knows something’s up, like he’s trying to hide something secret. “What are you doing for the rest of the night?”

“I’m probably going to make dinner and FaceTime Mitch, why?”

“No reason.”   
  


Alex DeBrincat, ever a fucking weirdo, turns and skates away for the next faceoff, leaving Dylan questioning how the fuck Alex came to be his best friend.

\---

After practice, he normally has enough time for a nap before dinner, because he’s exhausted. He  _ still  _ hasn’t gotten a single text, call, FaceTime notification, or Snap from Mitch. He feels like he’s being ghosted on Valentine’s Day.

He’s getting a Gatorade for electrolytes lost when he hears a knock on the door. “I swear to god, Alex, the cruise is enough. Theresa doesn’t need anything more for––”

Mitch is there, with a bear probably twice his size and… a basket. 

And he’s wearing his bracelet.

“Shit, should I have bought you a cruise?” He says, with his shit eating grin and Mitch is  _ here _ , standing in front of him and––

“What? No, fuck, Mitchy,” Dylan says, laughing as he steps forward and kisses him. “You’re supposed to be in Dallas, why are you here?” 

“I took a different plane home, that’s why I was up so early. You’re lucky I ran out of data on the plane or I would’ve actually ended up buying a damn cruise for us for the off-season,” he jokes. 

Dylan feels tears well up in his eyes. “I love you so much,” he says softly. “But what’s with the bear?”

“ _ I love you  _ bear- _ y much? _ ” Mitch says, holding the bear to him. Then he holds up the basket, with a bottle of his favorite wine, his favorite cheese, and crackers. “ _ Not to  _ wine _ or be  _ cheesy _ , but I hope you  _ crack- _ er up at these puns. Dinner? _ ”

“Get in here,” Dylan says, pulling his boyfriend inside.

“Okay, okay!” Mitch laughs, following him in. 

Dylan kisses him, smiling way too hard for the kiss to be any good. But it is, because it’s Mitch, and it’s always good with Mitch. 

They’ll always be good.


End file.
